The Theology of Weston

" Joseph was sold to The 'Potamus as a slave."


"When Joseph was in prison, he met The Cup Man."


"Moses helped the Satellites escape from Egypt."


"Dear Lord, please give us a microscope!" 

CC Field Trip--National Fish Hatchery

Looking for birds

Do you see what I see?

Overlook Trail

Inks Lake Dam

Hatchery ponds

Taking a break

Fishy fishy

Run, fishies, run!

Don't get caught by the fisherman!

picnic time

300 Twisted Oak

As of today, Jeff and I are the proud owners of a beautiful 10-acre piece of paradise between Marble Falls and Horseshoe Bay! We are so very excited about this purchase and look forward to seeing what will become of it. We hope you will join us during the course of this new adventure, and we hope you will make plans now to come visit us soon!

We can gather wildflowers...

...climb trees

...play longhorns

...and take in the view.

Chopped

It's no secret that the Watts like food. We love to cook it, eat it and watch shows about it. Lately, one of our Food Network favorites has been Chopped. The premise of the show is that the chefs come in not knowing what the ingredients are until the competition begins. They open their baskets to find the, sometimes-surprising, required 3-4 ingredients, and then have 20-30 minutes to prepare and plate, depending on the course. Ruth particularly loves this show and wanted to challenge her dad to a Chopped-like competition. I chose the required ingredients, based on what we had on hand and what we had enough of to divide between the baskets. Neither Ruth nor Jeff knew what I was putting in the baskets ahead of time. On the actual show, they prepare an appetizer course, a main course and a dessert. We decided to just do a main course, and we decided to allow 40 minutes instead of 30. The required ingredients were jalapeño-cheese venison summer sausage, rice, sweet potatoes and lentils. It was a great competition, and both chefs held their own. Ruth did pretty much everything herself--from chopping to cooking to plating. I only assisted her once or twice in moving hot pans off the stove. Ruth ended up preparing a very tasty soup with the sweet potato, rice and lentils. She also fried some rice with some of the sweet potato, and she pan fried the sausage and then made it into a little open faced sandwich topped with BBQ sauce. I was pretty amazed at her ability to put the ingredients together in such a tasty and interesting way. Jeff made onion rice over a mornay sauce, topped with the sausage, along with a sweet potato/lentil hash. We all had such a good time, and I'm sure this will not be our last Chopped competition.

Japanese Tea Ceremony

Ruth spent the week studying about Japan in History, so we ended the week with a Japanese Tea Ceremony. Though our book claimed that this would be a light meal, it turned out to be an eight-course feast that went like this: salad and white rice, chicken broth with mushrooms, grilled fish, hot water with lemon slices, a dish representing mountains and the sea (pretzel crackers and blueberry cream cheese), pickles and white rice, sweets representing the season (fall-colored Nila Wafers), black tea, and green tea. It was fun to make and fun to eat. And Ruth had a blast playing hostess!

So, how do you really feel?

Yesterday, towards the end of the day, when emotions sometimes run high, Weston kind of lost control of himself, and in a rare fit of anger and rebellion, threw a box of crayons across the room. You can imagine that this did not go over well with the maternal figure, and after appropriate action was taken on her part, this young lad was sent to sit on his bed to cool off. When the calm finally started to settle in (after the stomping and screaming and crying), this child was overheard singing his frustration over and over again: "I'm so angry, so very angry. I've got the angry down in my heart." I literally had to step outside so as not to let him hear me laugh.

Later, when I went up to talk to Weston about his behavior, I asked him if he knew why he was in trouble. He rightly said it was because of his rebellion and because of disobeying. I then asked him if he could tell me the verse he has been memorizing in CC. Without hesitating, he started: "Children, obey your..." Then he scrunched up his face, and continued without gusto: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother..." He was so clearly disgusted to have been "caught," that I once again found myself trying not to laugh.

An otherwise lovely weekend

We had a wonderful weekend, really, but there were a few things that made it less than perfect. Included among those were the following:

• a wee one with a MAJOR tummy bug
• a young boy with a busted, bloody nose
• a driver running her SUV into my van in a parking lot and leaving it with a huge dent and a nice little scratch--and then commenting (upon the revelation that she was also moving here from Kingwood) that "we were meant to bump into each other."
• six small handfuls of teeny, tiny cactus prickles

On the positive side, though, we also got to do the following:

• visit with my parents and grandparents
• eat yummy BBQ
• play at the park
• look at quite a lot of toy catalogs  
• visit with Jeff's parents
• eat yummy Mexican food
• enjoy cool breezes and a hint of fall-like weather
• buy supplies for upcoming science experiments and history projects
• hang out at "our" land, making measurements for our future house
• jump on the trampoline
• throw around the football

Finishing the 10 poster

Weston has been working for a while on completing ten books for his reading poster, and today was the day! He chose to go bowling for his reward, so we got to check out the local bowling alley. It was perfect, and we all had a blast! We are so proud of of our big reader!

Getting to Know Marble Falls

We spent a good portion of the day getting to know our soon-to-be new hometown. First, we tromped around on the land we are trying to buy. Jeff and I tried to walk off where the house will sit, while the kids roamed freely on the 10 acres, full of joy and adventure. The next stop was Sonic. Of course. Then, we made our way over to the Marble Falls Market Day, where vendors were set up all along Main Street, with wares of every kind for sale. At the end of Main Street we ran into the library, where we spent more than half an hour, checking out books, reading and putting puzzles together. I cut out a little early, so I could snap some photos along Main Street, and then we all met up for lunch at a lovely little deli, which we will definitely visit again! After lunch, we headed over to Home Depot for a few supplies and a lot of research. Finally, we stopped at the awesome HEB, before heading back to the casa for naps. It was such a fun day and so exciting to start to familiarize ourselves with our new surroundings!

Kid of the Week

Weston was awarded "Kid of the Week" at CC today. He is one of the youngest students on our CC campus who is in an actual class (as opposed to a nursery class). He really impressed his teacher and the director by going to class all on his own (since I was on nursery duty and wasn't able to attend with him, as would normally be the case) and participating in every activity, including a presentation in front of the class. I was able to attend class with him today and was impressed myself with his level of involvement and the way he isn't intimidated being in a class of all older kids (some as old as 7). We ran into his afternoon activity coordinator at the grocery store this afternoon, and she bragged about his behavior during that portion of the day, adding that she wasn't surprised he was given this award and that she truly felt he deserved it. This honor is such a compliment and such a testament of the big boy Weston has become. We are so proud of him!

Labor Day Weekend 2010